One of the best bands from Boston besides Boston, The Cars, or Aerosmith has been Lawrence legends Godsmack. They have been carrying the flag for Boston Hard Rock/Metal since their self titled debut album. These guys whether you like it or not are also one of the best bands to see in a live format and you can take that to the bank. Now the band is getting ready to release their first album 2014’s 1000HP in their seventh overall album entitled When Legends Rise on April 27TH via BMG (Their first with the label). The band has also unleashed the very first single off the album in Bulletproof which is very melodic. The song is actually very different than what we are used to from the band, but the direction of their music should not be a surprise to anyone. Lead singer Sully Erna once said in an interview in 2014, “I’m not that same young, angry kid as I was when I was writing early Godsmack material. And so now Godsmack has become a little bit of a challenge because I go, ‘Okay, what am I gonna write about?’ Cause you can’t write too ‘happy’ when you’re writing for Godsmack, but nothing is really making me super sad or angry. And so it’s gonna be interesting to continue.” I actually like the direction the band is going in and I cannot wait to hear what the rest of the tracks sound like. If you would like to pre-order the album, you can do so here.

I have been waiting a long time to do this special report for all of you as we have covered some pretty famous fights. Some of my favorites have been inner turmoil between bands for the most part, but what happens when guys from two different bands go at it. Back in the summer of 2009, Motley Crue was in the second year of their own touring festival that the dubbed Cruefest (makes sense). On the bill for Cruefest 2 besides Motley Crue was Theory Of A Deadman, Drowning Pool, Charm City Devils, and the mighty Godsmack. Apparently during the tour, Sully Erna had a lot to complain about when it came to the way his band was treated by Nikki Sixx. All of the noise eventually led to the two sides throwing insults back and forth at each other on Twitter, but Godsmack stepped it up a notch when they wrote the track Cryin’ Like A Bitch. which appeared on the bands record The Oracle.

That track might have been the biggest stone thrown during this whole entire ordeal. For a long time Sully was denying that the track was about Nikki Sixx, but in a 2009 interview with the Artisan News Service, he made these comments about the track, “I will tell you, it’s been the most dramatic tour we’ve ever been on. I mean, talk about just craziness, man. Sometimes egos run high, man, and there’s definitely been some rock-star garbage on this tour that just have never seen in our career. Every band — from Black Sabbath to Aerosmith, Rush, Metallica… you name it… They’ve always… I don’t think there was ever a threat, you know what I mean?! Like who’s gonna dwarf Metallica anyways? But there’s always just been this mutual kind of like, ‘We wanna put on a great show, so bring your bells and whistles, bring your show, so between you guys and us, we can make these people get a bang for their buck.’ And that’s really what entertainment has always been about. And so, I’ve never been in a position before where we felt we had to really protect this thing; it’s kind of like a dog with a bone — you put us up against a wall and we’re gonna come out swinging.”

Sully goes on to say, “I don’t know who needs to live up to whose reputations and I don’t know why some people consider music as a competition, but I will tell you that I have never been in a situation where I felt like I was out for blood, and honestly, this was the first time that I felt like, ‘You know what?! If there’s gonna be some people that are gonna treat other people a certain way, then I’m gonna go out there every night and fucking crush you on stage — make sure that we make you look old and fat, and go home with a nice big fat paycheck. You can sit in your world and I’ll sit in mine, and I’ll see you at the top again, I guess, somewhere…’ I don’t know. All I care about, really, is playing music and enjoying myself on the road. I’m not here to compete. Everybody has their fans, everybody has their own music, and it’s supposed to be more like a brotherhood, but… I don’t know. It’s been a good time for us out here, but in other situations, there’s definitely been some uncomfortable moments.”

Nevertheless, Nikki Sixx would essentially never fire back as far as music was concerned almost like he was taking the high road until he lashed out on Twitter and interviews several times. In one interview he said, “Every person — from road crew, fans and even all the bands on the tour (including [Sully’s] band) — was so happy, but [Erna] just seems to be crying like a bitch. Funny, even his manager told me he’s an a—hole. Maybe the problem is just in HIS head… I got no problem with him.” Nikki even took to Twitter when it was concerning his show The Sixx Sense. Apparently according to Nikki, Sully tried to get in contact with someone about promoting a record and here is what Nikki had to say on Twitter, “So @godsmack begged to be on @Sixxsense to promote their s–t new album. Good luck touring phonebooths. Who’s crying like a bitch now?” Those are some pretty harsh words coming from the legendary bassist, but Nikki has never been one to mince his words.

It has been awhile since anything has gone down in this feud, but that was until Sully visited The Jasta Show which is hosted by Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed. Here is the latest venom that Sully has spit out at Nikki Sixx when asked about the situation, “I’ll say it straight out: I’ve never met a bigger f—ing dick in my life than Nikki Sixx. He’s a douchebag. He’s straight-up a f—ing douche, and I don’t give a f–k what he says. He knows exactly where I am, and he knows exactly how he can find me anytime that motherf—er has the balls to come and look me up. And I’ll say it straight out on your podcast. He’s a dick, man. He just treats people like s–t.” Sully would continue by saying, “I don’t know what his deal is, man, but I can just tell you that he is the most… I don’t even know what the word is for it. I’ve never met anyone like that. He’s just so pompous and egotistical and he feels like he’s still on top of the world. He just thinks he’s so relevant, and he’s just an old, fat washed-up has-been. He annoys me, and I don’t even deal with it anymore. It’s lame.” It remains to be seen if Nikki Sixx responds to the latest, but I think we can let the numbers do the talking for the both of them. After all, money and numbers speak volumes in that industry.

Usually during a very hot and sweaty day, I would not be looking all that forward to it, but the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, and his broken leg were at the legendary Fenway Park for night two of their two night stay. What has been dubbed as the Broken Leg Tour due to an injury he suffered in Sweden brought a different dynamic to the show because he was confined to a throne of sorts. That didn’t damper the mood of any of the fans who were there to rock out no matter what condition Grohl was in and it’s admirable that he has even done. I say that because most bands would have packed it up and called it a day, but not Dave Grohl. Day two of the tour once again featured Royal Blood, a band made up of a bassist and a drummer and local Irish punk heroes The Dropkick Murphy’s. So, it definitely promised to be one heck of an evening filled with rock music and the Fenway Faithful.

The Foo Fighters kicked off their set with a bang playing the very popular and classic Everlong and following that with Monkey Wrench which were obviously crowd favorites by the sounds of the crowd eruption. The band continued to deliver hit after hit, but the real fun of the show began during the playing of Up In Arms as Dave began to tell the story of how he broke his leg in Sweden and how he came up with the moving throne. That wouldn’t be the only moment of fun or unique moments of the night that Dave would provide because he had a whole bag of tricks. During the band introductions, he would play snippets of Let It Go by The Cars which was to evoke emotion from the local Boston crowd, I’m The One by Van Halen, and a special performance of The White Stripes Seven Nation Army that was sung by Dave’s own orthopedic doctor Dr. Lew C. Schon, MD. While I could have been OK with a snippet of the song, they did the whole thing and it actually wasn’t too bad. The show featured acoustic performances of songs like My Hero and Times Like These as well as some cool covers of songs like Under Pressure and a special performance of School’s Out by Alice Cooper with Sully Erna of Godsmack on vocals to give the crowd another local celebrity.

One of the things that Dave Grohl does best is that he is able to get the best out of a crowd no matter what night it is or what city it is. He was able to get the crowd to sing as loud as the crowd possibly could like a true master of their craft could. The crowd gave it their all in return for Dave Grohl giving it his all that night. One of the funnier re-occurring moments of the show was when they would finish a song, the crowd would chant out Foo and if you don’t know it, it sounds like they are booing him, but they weren’t and he acknowledged it a couple of times saying that i freaked him out. One statement that I will make right now is that Dave Grohl with one leg was ten times better than most of your acts that are out there today because this was definitely one of my all time favorite performances. I can only imagine what the man can do when he use of both legs. The Dropkick Murphy’s were definitely another highlight of the night for me as the band blazed through some of the classics that got the crowd going like Tessie, State Of Massachusetts, and I’m Shipping Up To Boston. Overall, it truly was a fun night of rock and overpriced hot dogs, but a night I will never forget.

We decided that we were going to give you another album of the week this week and for the fact that I couldn’t resist reviewing the brand new album from Godsmack. 1000HP is the sixth record from Godsmack and their first since 2010’s gold selling album The Oracle. The usual suspects returned to record the album in Sully Erna (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, and he also produced the record), Tony Rombola (Guitar), Robbie Merrill (Bass), and Shannon Larkin (Drums). For the recording of the album, the band actually leased a warehouse and built a recording studio making it the Godsmack HQ which makes it easier for the band to record and rehearse for tours without having to depend on others. Dave Fortman who was known for working with Superjoint Ritual, Otep, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Evanescence, came back to help produce another record with the band since he produced The Oracle. Rombola had this to say to Guitar World about what it was like to work with Fortman on the album, “He has a lot of ideas and was a lot of fun to work with. He’s also a guitar player and plays drums, so he was able to give us input and bounce ideas off of us.” The album is due to be released on August 5TH wherever music is sold.

The band seems to reflect on their past in the song 1000HP addressing how they came from nothing to all of sudden being the biggest band in the world at the time with the music being no nonsense, in your face fury. The song is actually pretty badass, it’s everything you would expect from Godsmack. The next track on the record is called FML (which means F*** My Life), but it starts off melodic then it hits you with a can of whoop ass. The song reminds me a lot of Faceless and the fury that was behind the songwriting on that album (a reason why it’s one of my favs). The next track is called Something Different and it literally is something different for Godsmack as it’s a little more on the melodic side while still packing a definite punch. What’s Next? gets down and dirty with this in your face hard rock classic. The next track is called Generation Day and it’s basically Godsmack opening their musical horizons with this 6 minute plus epic track. The track opens up with everything you could possibly want from Godsmack as they deliver the hard charging guitars, some deep low end bass, and the epic drum build up by Shannon Larkin. That is only the instrumental section in the song, you should definitely pay attention to what Sully is doing in the track as he delivers some of his best vocal work yet.

Locked & Loaded is a bad ass heavy groove laden in your face ass kicker of a track that is so groovin. So, far this really is the Godsmack we love and have been craving for. Living In The Gray is another track on the album that really lays all the grooves that would make all groove metal fans very proud with song writing that is similar to what we heard on the album IV. I Don’t Belong is a track that just hammers down on you with the rhythm section of the band. It’s full of low and heavy bass riffs and badass drum playing while Sully gives you all the reasons he doesn’t belong. Nothing Comes Easy is the next track on the record and it slowly starts to build up with some badass playing from the band which is the most impressive part of the track cause the track is epic. Some the guitar playing reminds me a lot of Vampire mixed with Realign and a couple other tracks. Turning To Stone is the last track on the record and it’s the perfect way to end an album much like Voodoo did for the first record or what Bleeding Me did for IV. I love this record, I think this is the triumphant return of Godsmack. I am giving the album four stars out of five.